FDA Warnings, Horror Stories, Suicide - Psychiatric Watchdog Group Calls for Action

LOS ANGELES, July 5 -- Tom Cruise: Public come forth in support of his hard-hitting statements, Brooke Shields: The facts and figures speak for themselves.

“I had two sons -- David Lee, age 8 and Billy, 16 -- and my wife of 20 years -- all gone. After being on Prozac for 21 days, my wife shot and killed both of these two boys....” This testimony from Tucker Moneymaker before the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) hearing into an antidepressant in 1991 was ignored, along with the stories of dozens of other victims and scientists.

A panel of nine psychiatrists, many with financial ties to pharmaceutical companies, heard the chilling testimony but refused to sound the alarm that the antidepressant could cause suicide and violence. Fourteen years later, on July 1, the victims were vindicated after the FDA warned that SSRI antidepressants potentially cause suicide not just in children but also in adults. Last year, an FDA Advisory also acknowledged the drugs could cause hostility and aggression.

The Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) today launched a forum on its website for victims of psychiatric drugs and misdiagnosis to report their abuse and to revisit the 1991 FDA Hearings in a mini-documentary, “The FDA: From Cover Up to ’Black Box’ Warning.” Last October, the FDA ordered a “black box” label warning that children can become suicidal while taking the drugs.

Since 1991, over 100 children have committed suicide after being prescribed antidepressants and more than 25 people have been killed and 50 wounded by teens’ murderous shooting sprees while taking the drugs. Millions of adults have suffered other side effects including sexual dysfunction and “electric shock-like sensations” while withdrawing from them.

Filmed statements from psychiatric victims and parents whose children committed suicide shortly after being prescribed mind-altering drugs appear as both a public information service and warning.

William: “It was horrible. I would start quivering and shaking. I could not control anything...I had no feelings...Someone could have come and said my mother died. I would not have reacted...I don’t think highly of psychiatric drugs at all.”

Molly: “’here’s a 17-year-old guinea pig, let’s blast her with 90 mgs (of an antidepressant).’ So when I was released I didn’t know how to function as a zombie. I had no personality. None of my underlying issues had been addressed or resolved so I attempted to kill myself.”

CCHR, a psychiatric watchdog established by the Church of Scientology in 1969, has documented patient testimony against psychotropic drugs, electroshock, psychosurgery, involuntary and voluntary commitment and psychiatric rape and fraud.

Contact Information

Ben WIlliams

Public Relations

Citizens’ Commission on Human Rights

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